Wednesday, 29 May 2013

The main
summer season in Iceland begins soon and we’ve already seen an increase in
travellers coming to stay at the farm we're working on. Our role involves checking in guests, cleaning the rooms and making breakfast – last night we
added to our skill set by learning to bake bread.

We now realise
that learning the information for the cave tours was easy, Víðgelmir is really
exciting and we managed to absorb all the information about it without too much
trouble. We’ve both guided tours on our own now and Louise is at the top of the
leader board with the first tip of the season, 500 Icelandic krona. Rob´s only
tip so far is to invest in some speedos, more about that later...

Learning
how to pronounce words in Icelandic however, is not so easy. Rob´s having a lot
of fun making sounds with his R´s, instead of his arse for a change! Being
Scottish is helping Louise a little as she can already roll her R´s, but we´re
both making a lot of mess as we try to make noises through our noses…

We need
to be able to pronounce the names of all our cottages, so have started by practicing
the hardest two, Hóll and Höll. They may look the same, but they sound completely different and we keep mixing them up. One has an o as in open and the other has a u
as in burn, both sound like tl at the end with a strange noise made by trapping your tongue
at the top of your mouth and blowing air out of the side – have a try!

It
doesn’t really get dark here, so we’ve been making the most of the light nights
by going for walks and exploring more of Iceland.

One night, we took the farm dog Prestur on a walk to the top of the hill we live on, and were really lucky to see an arctic fox. Prestur was even more excited than us, and set off into the distance to see if the fox wanted to play. It was a moment of great relief when we saw him bounding back towards us, we would definitely be fired if we lost Prestur!

Rob has been straining at the leash as well. Snow capped peaks surround our house and with his insatiable desire to get to the top of every hill it’s amazing he’s not run off into the distance too.

We’ve
also been going on some adventures with Halldór and Chavo. Our favourite place so far is a secret, closely guarded by the locals, so we can’t say too much about it… But it does involve a 41ºC hot
tub on the side of a mountain. It turns out that shorts aren´t ideal hot tub wear. It wasn't clear if the bubbles surrounding Rob were, as he claimed, air trapped in his rather snazzy TK Max shorts or if he was actually creating his own jacuzzi. Either way, it was recommended Rob invest in a tighter pair, to both put everyone's mind at rest and speed up the drying process - leaving the hot tub is quite a refreshing experience to say the least!

We´re not
sure if it can get much better than that… But have started to plan our first
days off. Ideas include snorkeling between the continental plates and cycling
to see Geysers and waterfalls. Hopefully the camera will enjoy seeing more of Iceland too.

Monday, 27 May 2013

Before
we set off, we were told that nine out of ten couples split up when they go
travelling together. An unlikely statistic so we thought, that was until we
started writing a blog together…

Rob
would have liked to give you a detailed account of his first experience with a
Dyson Airblade V hand dryer in Leicester Forrest East services, and how he was
pleasantly surprised by the price of a jacket potato at Cobham services on the
M25. But that would be stupid and we’re not going to let him do that.

Halldor and Prestur singing an Icelandic howl

Instead, we can tell you that we’ve arrived in Iceland and it’s magical. In our first few days, we’ve seen some amazing scenery, spent lots of time inside a lava cave, and made some new friends at Fljotstunga, our host Halldor, fellow worker Chavo and Prestur, the singing dog.

Our new home is an isolated farm on the edge of a massive lava field with Iceland’s second largest glacier within view. The farm has seven cottages for travellers and is home to Iceland’s biggest lava cave Viogelmir.

Later this week, for the first time, we will be left on our own to look after the farm and guide tours of Viogelmir. We’ve been studying hard…

Viogelmir was formed in the year 930, just
after the first Vikings settled in Iceland, when three craters erupted creating
a lava field 52 km long.

Please be very careful when you’re walking on
the loose lava stones, bending your knees will help you to balance.

You must never touch the sides or the ceiling
of the lava cave as the stalactites and stalagmites are very fragile and will
never grow back if broken.

And if you look over here you will see the Ice
Elf City, an amazing spectacle of ice stalagmites in which the Ice Elves make
their home in the winter.

I do hope you enjoyed your short tour of Viogelmir, that will be 2,500 Icelandic
Krona please!

During our time above the lava, we have already enjoyed some unique Icelandic
experiences. We have walked on black sand, tasted the wonderful combination of
raw and cooked onions on Icelandic hotdogs and learned that not all waterfalls flow
from a river – in Iceland they can appear from cracks in the lava to create a
1km long spectacle like Hraunfossar.

Hraunfossar

Of course, some things in Iceland are just like home. When the eight Icelandic horses that live on the farm escaped from their field on our first day, they came to visit us at the house – it was just like being at Louise’s mum’s.

Having
made it through our first blog post, there’s a chance we could become the one out of ten couples that stay together. And we might even try to write another update soon…

Thursday, 9 May 2013

In
less than two weeks we (Rob and Louise) will be in Iceland, working at Fljótstunga
Travel Farm where travellers get the wonderful opportunity to visit a preserved
lava cave called Víðgelmir - hopefully our training will include some
tips on Icelandic pronunciation or we will be rubbish tour guides...

This
two and a half month trip is the beginning of not only our blog, but of our Unpacked
Adventures around Europe where we hope to stop and unpack in beautiful places
where we can live with the locals, eat new food and learn new ways of life
while enjoying as many adventures as we can – lots of wild swimming and running
up mountains.

We look
forward to sharing our first Unpacked Adventure with you. Iceland here we come!

About Me

Mum to Harris and enthusiastic bookseller. I hope the page brings fun and lots of reading. Contact me if you would like to host a book party, place an order, become an Usborne Organiser or just to find out more.